In late April 1925 a strange collection of verses appeared in the Gazette. Interestingly the authors were only ‘school boys’, perhaps the verses that school girls wrote in the front of their books weren’t as lurid!
‘Steal not this book for fear of shame
For here you see the owner’s name’
‘He who steals what isn’t his’n
When he’s caught will go to prison’
‘’Steal not this book my honest friend,
For fear the gallows should be your end;
For if you do the Judge will say
‘Where is that book you stole away’
And if you say, ‘I do not know’,
The Judge will say, ‘Go down below’’’
Looking for children’s books in our collections has proved quite difficult. There are a number on display in the Museum and some modern ones that our young visitors can pick up and read on their way around.
There are a number, like this one from our store, which date from earlier years. A shilling in 1875 would have been beyond the reach of most families.
This book cost ‘one shilling or, mounted on cloth, two shillings’.
A list of the other titles in the ‘Shilling Toy Books’ series by George Routledge & Sons. The titles include Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Bears and other similar titles, as well as Bible stories and nursery rhyme anthologies.
Some of the books are hidden within the ‘loan boxes’ in our Learning Department including ‘The Golden Annual for Girls’. Maybe the schoolgirls were busy reading things like this rather then penning verses to identify their books, like the boys! Although neither the contents nor the layout would be appealing today, The Golden Annual for Girls was published by the Amalgamated Press each year from 1925 until 1939.
Written by Museum Volunteer, Sue B.
Looking for children’s books in our collections has proved quite difficult. There are a number on display in the Museum and some modern ones that our young visitors can pick up and read on their way around
There are a number, like this one from our store, which date from earlier years